Determined to deliver an unprecedented Asian Wrestling Championship, the Wrestling Federation of India president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh is himself leading the organising team from the front. The WFI chief took today (Friday) took a tour of the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium for a recce and brief the team about the preparations for the prestigious event.
The WFI will host the Senior Wrestling Asian Championship at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi from March February 18 to 23. The event holds special significance for the wrestlers to test and hone their skills in run up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The United World Wrestling (UWW) has given the hosting rights of the 2020 Senior Asian Wrestling Championships to the WFI.
Also Read: “My Tokyo 2020 dream still alive, focus now on Asian Wrestling championship” Sakshi Malik
The Indian governing body for the sport had proposed New Delhi and Cuttack in Odisha as the venues to host the event. The UWW after thorough inspections and evaluation of the cities had decided to host the event in New Delhi
The championship will take place from February 18 to 23 at the KD Jadhav Wrestling Arena in the Indira Gandhi Stadium complex.
The championship holds special significance for the Asian wrestling bodies as the teams taking part in the New Delhi event can participate in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Xian, China, from March 27 to 29. The UWW has already announced that the championships will also be considered as ranking competition to determine rankings for the Tokyo Olympics.
The tournament will also help the Indian wrestlers to prepare for the Asian and World qualifiers. WFI has already announced that the Indian team for the championships will be selected through trials in the first week of January. Bajrang Punia has been exempted from the selection trials, but all the other wrestlers will have to battle for an Asian Championships berth in the trials.
The Senior Asian Championship will return to India after a gap of 2 years. India last hosted the championships in 2017. The 2018 edition was held at Bishtek, Kyrgyzstan and in 2019, Xian province of China hosted the Senior Asian. India won 16 medals overall in the last edition including a lone gold by Bajrang Punia in the 65kg category.
